286 The Spiritual Man
Another very important principle to learn in spiritual warfare is
that we must attack Satan incessantly. This is to prevent ourselves
from being attacked. When a believer has crossed into the domain of
the spiritual he daily ought to maintain a combat attitude in his spirit,
praying therewith for the overthrow of all the works of Satan done
through the evil powers. If not, he shall discover his spirit shall fall
from heaven, grow very weak and feeble, gradually lose its senses,
and finally become scarcely detectable. This is all because the
believer’s inner man has collapsed into such a passive condition that
it has ceased to launch out in attack. Hence ground is surrendered to
the enemy from which to assail, surround and shut in his spirit. But if
the Christian daily “lets out” his spirit and continually resists the foe,
he will keep his spirit mobilized. And with each passing day it shall
wax stronger and stronger.
A Christian must be delivered from every misconception with
respect to spiritual life. He often surmises, before he enters the
spiritual sphere, that if only he could be as spiritual as his brother
how happy he would be! He visualizes the spiritual odyssey as a
most happy affair; and so he contemplates spending his days in
perfect joy. Little does he know that the opposite is the truth. The
spiritual path does not yield any enjoyment to the person himself; it
is instead a life of daily fighting. To remove warfare from a spiritual
life is to render it unspiritual. Life in the spirit is a suffering way,
filled with watching and laboring, burdened by weariness and trial,
punctuated by heartbreak and conflict. It is a life utterly outpoured
entirely for the kingdom of God and lived in complete disregard for
one’s personal happiness. When a Christian is carnal he lives towards
himself and for his own “spiritual” enjoyment. Of little real value is
he in God’s hand. Only as he dies to sin and to his personal life shall
he be able to be used by God.
A spiritual life is one of spiritual usefulness because it is lived to
mount assault upon assault against God’s spiritual enemy. We ought